Water issue is diverted

The Chronicle revealed reaction to the Waitangi Tribunal report on Saturday.

The ownership of mountain waters and compensation for their diversion is between Whanganui iwi and the Crown, says Genesis Energy.

The state-owned electricity company's insistence that it will not get involved follows an iwi spokesman saying they wanted the waters returned to the tribes.

The Waitangi Tribunal report on issues in the Tongariro National Park area was handed over to claimants last week. It said Whanganui iwi had a strong interest in waters flowing from the mountains of the central North Island, because they fed the Whanganui and other rivers.

It recommended that government compensate the tribes for their diversion by Genesis to generate electricity, and that the rivers and streams be co-managed by the Crown and iwi.

But it stopped short of recommending the diversions be ended and the waters returned, which Whanganui iwi spokesman Gerrard Albert said was unfortunate.

The tribes have pushed for the return of those waters since the diversions were done, without consulting them, in the 1970s.

What's at stake is a lot of electricity - 1160 Gigawatt hours a year, enough to power 150,000 houses for a year.

Genesis public affairs manager Richard Gordon said the power company had 58 consents under the Resource Management Act to divert water from the Tongariro area. The consents have another 26 years to run.

There are 25 diversions on the eastern side of the mountains and eight on the western side.

An average of 12 cubic metres per second is taken from the Whangaehu and Moawhango catchments, and an average of 17 cubic metres per second from the Whanganui catchment. That water is used many times to generate electricity, as it journeys to the sea, he said.

Water diverted from the east goes through 10 power stations - two within the Tongariro Power Development and another eight on the Waikato River in the Waikato hydro scheme. Water diverted from the west passes through one power station in Tongariro and eight in Waikato.

Mr Gordon said that water generated 1160 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, contributing "significantly" to New Zealand's electricity system.

He said Genesis had a positive relationship with Whanganui iwi, working through issues such as the impacts of the Tongariro Power Development on the Whanganui River.

Government has said it may sell off up to 49 per cent of Genesis Energy in 2014. Uncertainty about the future availability of water would not affect that sale, Mr Gordon said.